Babushkas Dolls

 

You may remember that I made this Babushka Doll plaque up awhile ago.   At least I have got around to finishing the others in the set.   My crafting mojo has been missing for some time, and I must confess that I did find it a bit hard going - my eyes are really not up to details work these days, which is a shame, as I love doing things like this!  ' Bloomin' Macular Degeneration and the loss of central sight - it makes it so difficult to see the end of a paint brush or paint pen.  The shapes came from Madhatters Designs.

Anyway I tried - I just may have to rethink what projects I can tackle in the future!   They perhaps do look better in real life, as photos show up the imperfections so much more.

A little trio of hanging dolls - about 4" tall

Die-cut Birthday Card

 

Less is more - a simple die-cut card using a member dies from the Clarity Stamp Club, with a piece of pale green embossed paper behind it.

Simnel Cake

 

I decided to make a Simnel Cake, using Mary Berry's recipe.   It's a lovely recipe with a layer of marzipan in the middle.

The recipe actually has sugared primroses on the top too - and I was going to do those as I have a lot of primroses in the garden, but then I realised I only have golden caster sugar in the cupboard, so they wouldn't have been so good - so little chocolate eggs in the middle instead!

Happy Easter to you all.

Cake Topper

 

A quick cake topper to go with the birthday card I did for same young lady.  The request was that the them should be baskeball and there should be a hedgehog!

Easter Cards

A couple of simple Easter Cards, using Card-io stamps and masks.    The cross mask was brushed with a couple of different yellows from the Artistry Ink pads.    The bullrushes, grasses flowers and dragonflies were inked with the Artistry inks, and finally the greeting was hand-written and foiled using the Kaleido machine.

Floral card

Today's card is a stamped one using this month's stamp from the Clarity Club.   The background was created with Artistry inks through a Sweet Poppy metal stencil, and then the image stamped in the "circle" with Versafine Clair, and then water coloured with Artistry inks.  The Sentiment was a Julie Hickey stamp.

I always do inserts for my card, and for once I am sharing an example.   This is the one for this card - it was mainly produced in Craft Artist.   I always doe a border and then trim this with a wavy edged trimmer.   I normally put an image from Craft Artist on the left-hand side, but on this occasion I stamped an image using Card-io stamps, as they complimented the front of the card,

 

Yellow & Grey card

 

One of my granddaughters is very much into the colour yellow.  She also loves Harry Potter and in particular Dobby - and you can't have Dobby without socks!    She also wanted a basketball net for her birthday, which I have bought for her.    Therefor the card reflects all these items.

The card was created in Craft Artist.

A Nautical Theme

Experimenting with an idea for a nautical theme for a man's card.     I created a mask for the lighthouse stamp from Crafts-Too, and using the Chocolate Baroque masks and stencils applied some Artistry Inks in a blue and teal.  Removing the mask I then stamped the lighthouse.   the other stamps weren't masked, but stamped straight over the coloured squares, although a little colour was applied to the wheel, anchor and bottom of the lighthouse afterwards to create some shade.

I wanted to use the bird from the set of stamps too, but in hindsight I probably shouldn't have gone with that idea!  

Playing With A New Toy

I treated myself to a new craft toy last week - a Kaleido!     What's that you ask.    It is a new die-cutting machine with a difference.

Basically it is a manual die-cutting machine, but it also foils too, amongst other things (because it has an electric supply to to heat the rollers. It was the foiling that sold it to me as you can use any stamp in your craft stash, and don't have to buy special "stamps".  It comes with special ink to use on your stamps.  You then lay your foil on the stamped image and run it through the machine, peel of the foil and tada you have a foiled image.

Here are photos of my first play.   I wasn't expecting miracles  for a first attempt, but we pleasantly pleased with the results.  I just grabbed some random stamps and had a play.

First try with pink foil

2nd try with blue foil

Third try with the pen that comes with it and green foil.

As you can see from the green effort it also comes with a pen, so you can draw your own images, words etc. and foil them.  Another added bonus is that the base plates is magnetised - so really great for dies.

I have some "play" to try, as it will also foil on material.   It will also fuse fantasy fiber/film, together and then you could stamp and foil that.    With another medium that comes with the machine, you can foil your own die-cuts!    John Lockwood also demonstrated creating backgrounds from grated crayons.  I am looking forward to experimenting.

I am really pleased with my first efforts, and can see the machine will "come into its own" for Christmas cards.

Tulips from Amsterdam

A variation on an earlier card I did, but this time using the windmill stamp, and masks.   This time I in addition to brushing the colour on across the strip, I added some water colour elements using the Artistry inks - in fact the mound that the windmill is sitting on is actually green - although it doesn't look like it in the photo